Richard Proudfoot served as Senior General Editor of the Arden Shakespeare for 35 years, until his retirement from King's in 1999. In 2001 The Arden Shakespeare published Proudfoot's Shakespeare: Text, Stage and Canon a critical overview of the scholarly achievements made in the field of Shakespeare studies by the end of the twentieth century.Having graduated from King's College, London, Nicola Bennett went on to train at the Webster Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, after which she worked for several years in the theatre. She now works in publishing, primarily as a freelance copy-editor. Her publications include the Globe quarto edition of The Merry Devil of Edmonton (2000).

• List of illustrationsGeneral editors' prefacePrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionKing Edward IIIAbbreviations and referencesIndex

No scholar could be better equipped to edit Edward III than Richard Proudfoot … His coeditor Nicola Bennett has helped him bring a long-term project to fruition. The result is an indispensable guide to the understanding and appreciation of an uneven but intriguing drama … The section of the introduction devoted to ‘the literary and dramatic reasons’ for regarding Shakespeare as part-author of Edward III is especially impressive, as it sketches the pattern of thematic and structural resemblances with Richard II, Henry V, Richard III, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and other Shakespeare plays. The place of Edward III in the Shakespeare canon seems now secure.